Make sure you pick up your copy at :
http://www.thecityofabacus.com/

City of Abacus Launch Night :

Cover :

Dellec – Cover

Interior Sample 1 :

Interior Sample 2 :

Cover :
Standard sketches with a pentagram in the background. It’s a wonderful fusion of different techniques.

Interior :

Some fantastic pencils. The details are incredible, especially one of the automobile. Good sequential art isn’t just a pretty panels, it has to tell a story and this one (even without dialogue) has a fantastic flow.

Thought it would be nice to end on a detailed preliminary sketch and its completed coloured artwork.

Pencils / Inks :

Coloured :

For more artwork :
http://jamietyndall.deviantart.com

For prints :
http://www.jamietyndall.com/collection/

It’s a fantastic premise, it brings the idea of world of Superman not only as a god but a scientist who looks upon the world with a certain curiosity. Morrison manages to combine elements of aliens, time travel into one heck of a story. Quitely’s art is extremely detailed and perfect for the writing. This is definitely one series to check out!

BTW if you’re looking for another good read try Pride of Baghdad.

Copies are available from http://www.plbcomics.com/

Cover of Issue 02 : (Variant)

2 Page Spread – Click to see full size :

Page 8 (Black and White) :

Page 8 (Colour) :

So how did it all start?

PLB Comics “started” I guess when I was about 7, I was a little kid and I started drawing my own little comics. When my younger brother turned about 5 years old he got into it to. We spent the majority of our youth drawing comics on mom’s kitchen table.

But when we really got serious was about 3 ½ years ago. I’d graduated from college and had turned 25 and was about to get married, y’know the whole grownup thing. Then it occurred to me that If we were gonna try and make a run of it with the comic book thing that now was the time. Me and my brother Mat Shockley had a 8 page story that we’d previously submitted to a contest that we’d decided that we wanted to print, as well as some other ideas. Our buddy Mike Carmean that we went to high school with had a story he wanted to do, so we figured the best thing to do was to put together a “Marvel Comics Presents” type book, with different ongoing stories.

It’s an interesting format with some great stories! So what happened when the first issue was released?

After the first issue was printed we started hitting up the cons, we appeared in a few local art shows and started getting some feedback. We’ve been pretty fortunate in the local support that people have given us. Since then, we’ve just been keeping busy, trying to keep the pace going, the second issue came out last fall and the third issue will come out this fall.

How was the process of getting everyone together onboard for the project?

Organizing the people involved wasn’t difficult, Me and Mat go way back with Mike, and Karlton (one of the writers of Gideon and Sebastion) we went to college with. We recently welcomed another college buddy Jason Shipp into the PLB Family. Jason is writing and drawing his own Magna epic creation entitled “OCEANTO”. It’s fantasy/pirates/ninja/sweeping adventure type of book, and it’s set to debut this Fall, same time as PLB COMICS PRESENTS # 3. We’ll have em both for the Baltimore Comic Con this year.

Awesome! It looks like PLB is slowly branching out. With different people, was it hard organising the roles each of you had to play?

All the heavy decisions are made by Me, Mat and Mike, we like to keep things as informal and laid back as possible. They both say I’m the president or whatever of the group, but it’s really not that official. Mike handles the money/business side of things. Mat keeps his nose to the grindstone drawing, pretty much all the time. I ‘m just happy in general to work with such talented people. The guys really are some of the best talent out there in indie books today, I want our company to take off because they really deserve it to work, and if it does I know there gonna bust their asses to put out the best damn books possible.

I’m also interesting in the more technical aspects. Was it difficult to get your head around the printing process?

Printing is tricky, used a different printing company for the first two issues, and I think were going to use another different one for issue 3 and Oceanto. Printing is so tricky, it’s definitely a learning process, our first print run of issue 1 was thru a company in texas and they did a good job, but it was a minum order of 1,000 copies, which has left us with a ton of books still. We got issue 2 printed in Canada because it was so incredibly cheap, that is until they tacked on the “through the roof” shipping costs, plus they were 2 weeks late shipping them to us, apparently the original shipment got lost and they had to do another print run. But anyway we’ve found a pretty decent company out of Jersey that were gonna do issue 3 with.

So what’s the plan for PLB in the future?

In October were going to be going back to our favorite con- the Baltimore Comic Con http://www.comicon.com/baltimore/ on Oct. 10th and 11th where we will be debuting PLB COMICS Presents # 3, and Oceanto # 1. Both books will have varients covers- one of the variant covers for PLB #3 is an “Illusions” exclusive, and we be available ONLY at Illusions Games and Comics in Sailsbury.

Then in late November/ Early December were realeasing Seraphic # Zero. Seraphic zero will contain the first 3 parts of the Seraphic storyline that are featured in PLB COMICS PRESENTS as well as the additional 4th part of the chapter, and it will be in full color. Mike is very excited about putting out this book, as it was originally intended to be seen, in full blazing color. After issue zero, Seraphic will continue in it’s own title with the first issue coming out sometime the following year. Were all very excited, hopefully at some point in time we’ll be able to make some real money off these books, but for right now were just plugging away. There are so many talented indie guys and gals out there in the same boat as us, there’s a real sense of comradey amongst the independent comic book scene, these are the guys that truly love what t hey do, even if it means they go broke over it. I’d strongly suggest anyone interested in good reads, check out our friends on our myspace account and the adds in our books, there are so many alternative’s out there for those who don’t want to read Marvel or DC. It’s important to me and the rest of the PLB boys, to get the story out there, that’s the most important thing.

Thank you so much for your all time and your words. I wish you all the best in your endeavours and stealing a line from one of the Big 2, “Make mine PLB!”.

For copies of PLB Comics Presents check out :
http://www.plbcomics.com/store

It can also be purchased locally thru :
Illusions Games and Comics
726 S. Salisbury, Blvd. Salisbury,
MD 21801
Phone: 410-742-0172

Other links :

• My Space – http://www.myspace.com/plbcomics
• Facebook – Link
• Twitter – http://twitter.com/PLBCOMICS

He’s keeping the below story secret but has stated :
Wingman is my new adventure in comics! Keep your eyes peeled! I won’t give too much away because its still in development and I may change some aspects.

Wingman 06 :

Wingman 07 :

With a sale on at my local comic place, I picked up (in addition to the free comics) :

• True Story Swear to God : This one goes to 11 by Tom Boland
• Ultimate Spider-man Volume 1 by Brian Michael Bendis
• Ultimate Spider-man Volume 2 by Brian Michael Bendis
• Wolverine : Enemy of the State by Mark Millar
  

Can’t wait to get started on reading all the new comics! So much to read and so little time. Hope everyone enjoyed their Free Comic Day. Feel free to leave comments on your new additions to your collection!

Red Sonja Colouring Process by Sean Harrington

Step 1:

This is the initial pencil sketch that will be the basis of the picture. I don’t bother with really clean lines as you can see, since most of the lines won’t be visible in the final picture. I darkened it a bit in Photoshop so that it will be easier to see against the background color.

Step 2:

Speaking of the background color, here it is! I put the lineart on a multiply layer and the background color is on a layer underneath. This is the layer I’m going to color on.

Step 3:

Now I lay down my first and darkest skin tone. I’m using a standard soft-edged brush in Photoshop. As you can see, I’m not really defining much with this color; just a few places where the darkest shadows will be, like under her chin, where I use hard-edged brush to make a stronger line.

Step 4:

Next lighter color coming up! With this color I begin to add most of the major definition to the body. I’m still using mainly a plain soft-edged brush for most of this, just switching to a hard-edged brush to define the lines of the body, such as under the breasts and around the bend in the leg. It’s important not to define things TOO well, because if you do, it will leave very sharp contrast between the dark and light colors, which doesn’t look very realistic. Take a look at some photographs of people, and you’ll see that the definition of the features and muscles, etc., is actually rather slight. Less is more, as it were.

At this stage I also start erasing and lightening some of the lines, as I don’t need them anymore. You can do this by painting white with a brush on the lineart multiply layer.

Step 5:

Now it’s time to add the main lightest skin tone. This color is used much the same as the previous color, just bringing a little more definition to the body all with the standard soft-edged brush. When you’re picking colors to use for skin tones, this is the color that is going to be most representative of the skins’s final appearance, so choose it first, and base the darker and lighter gradations off of it. Oh, and go ahead and get rid of the remaining lines at this point, too. You shouldn’t need them anymore. I leave the outer outline because I like the look, but you can get rid of it too, if you like it better without.

Step 6:

Now it’s time to add highlights to the skin. Ordinarily it’s good to keep these fairly muted, but in this case I used a heavier hand with them to give the appearance that she’s sweaty. I assume that slaying a horde of bloodthirsty barbarians would make one sweaty, but I can’t say so with absolute certainty, so if you know otherwise adjust your highlight intensity accordingly. I also added a slight reddish cast to her nose because I think it looks good, but do as you wish.

Step 7:

Now it’s time for hair and makeup. Yes, makeup. She’s not just a barabarian, she’s a barbarian PRINCESS, after all. You can buy brushes that simulate strands of hair which makes coloring the hair easier, or you can just do each strand individually with a really small standard brush if you’re a purist or a cheapskate.

Step 8:

Now for the armor. The best and easiest way to get good metal effects is to lasso the different parts of the armor, paste them to a new layer and use layer styles to get a look you generally like then merge it back down to background layer and touch it up a bit with the brush. If you’re a purist that disdains styles and filters and such…well, you’re on your own.

Final Picture:

Add a spiffy background of your choice and voila!
Here are the colors that I used:

Background:
R= 123 G= 46 B=0

Step 3: RGB 157 – 83 – 39
Step 4: RGB 183 – 110 – 64
Step 5: RGB 217 – 142 – 90

Highlight colors:
RGB 250 – 173 – 103
RGB 251 – 199 – 147

Initial Sketch :

Colouring :

Final Product

How long have you been drawing?

I’ve been drawing pretty well my whole life. Being an artist was all I really wanted to do when I grew up. In 2004 I started up an art studio here in Virginia with my brother John, and I’ve been working at it ever since. So, although I never grew up, I did become an artist. I’ve also worked in advertising, which I never dreamed about when I was a kid, but it made pretty good money.

Is there anything particular style you try to achieve?

Realistic and dynamic is my goal, although whether I pull it off or not is debatable. I try to capture the feeling of motion with my pictures, like it’s moving even though it’s a still picture. My favorite things to draw are people; faces, bodies, muscles, I could do that all day. I really don’t like drawing backgrounds at all, so I tried 3D modelling them a few years back, and it was a lot of fun and I thought it suited my style well so I add 3D elements to my pictures whenever possible.

Did you receive any formal training?

I’m completely self-taught.
Just like Pink Floyd, I don’t need no education.

Wow! That’s impressive.
Who would you consider your influences?

Adam Hughes, Travis Charest, Paolo Serpieri, Alphonse Mucha, Howard Pyle, Masamune Shirow, Kenichi Sonada, and of course Frank Frazetta like everybody else in the fantasy art biz.

Thanks for your time!
The Red Sonja piece is absolutely amazing.

For more on Sean check out his website :

http://www.Harrington-Artwerkes.com/arthome.htm